William Donnelly

Research Interests

I am a theoretical physicist working at the interface of quantum information theory and quantum gravity. I am interested in the question of what quantum phenomena such as entanglement tell us about the structure of spacetime and its dynamics; and conversely what gravity can teach us about entanglement.

Currently I am interested in:
* Entanglement entropy in field theory, quantum gravity and string theory.
* Soft modes in gauge theory and gravity.
* Gravity and gauge theory in lower dimensions and topological quantum field theory.

Positions Held

• 2014-2017 Department of Physics, University of California Santa Barbara Postdoctoral research associate
• 2012-2014 Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo Postdoctoral research associate

Recent Publications

• William Donnelly, Sydney Timmerman, and Nicolás Valdés-Meller, Entanglement entropy and the large N expansion of two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory, JHEP 04 (2020) 182, arXiv: 1911.09302.
• Eugene Adjei, William Donnelly, Victor Py, and Antony Speranza, Cosmic footballs from superrotations, Class.Quant.Grav. 37 (2020) 7, 075020, arXiv: 1910.05435.
• William Donnelly, Elise LePage, Yan-Yan Li, Andre Pereira, and Vasudev Shyam, Quantum corrections to finite radius holography and holographic entanglement entropy, JHEP 05 (2020) 006, arXiv: 1909.11402.
• William Donnelly and Gabriel Wong, Entanglement branes, modular flow, and extended topological quantum field theory, JHEP 10 (2019) 016, arXiv: 1811.10785.
• William Donnelly and Vasudev Shyam, Entanglement entropy and TT deformation, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121 (2018) no.13, 131602, arXiv: 1811.10785.
• William Donnelly and Steven B. Giddings, Gravitational splitting at first order: Quantum information localization in gravity, Phys. Rev. D98 (2018) no.8, 086006, arXiv: 1805.11095.
• Quantum gravity tomography, William Donnelly, arXiv: 1806.05643.

Seminars

• Dressed observables in perturbative quantum gravity, Quantum Gravity Across Approaches virtual seminar.
• Entanglement, large N, and strings in two dimensions, Simons Center Physics Seminar, Stony Brook University.
• Entanglement, large N, and strings in two dimensions, Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics string seminar.
• Defining entanglement and edge modes, KITP Program: Gravitational Holography, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Santa Barbara.
• String entanglement and the large N expansion of two-dimensional gauge theory," Francqui Symposium: Wavefunctions and Entanglement in Quantum Field Theory, Brussels, Belgium.
• Cosmic footballs from superrotations, KU Leuven/VUB/ULB joint High-Energy physics seminar, KU Leuven.
• Holographic entanglement and quantum gravity in finite regions, DAMTP Quantum Fields and Strings Seminar, University of Cambridge.
• "Holographic entanglement and quantum gravity in finite regions, Theoretical and Mathematical Physics Seminar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
• Holographic entanglement from quantum gravity, Quantum and Gravity in Okinawa, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University, Okinawa, Japan.
• Black holes and quantum entanglement, Bard College physics colloquium.
• Holographic entanglement from quantum gravity' University of New Brunswick gravity seminar.
• Entanglement branes and extended topological quantum field theory, String theory seminar, University of British Columbia.
• Entanglement branes and extended topological quantum field theory, Institute for Advanced Study high energy theory seminar.
• Entanglement entropy and TT deformation, Gravity, Quantum Fields and Information virtual seminar, Albert Einstein Institute Potsdam.
• Quantum gravity tomography, Interplay of Quantum Information, Foundations, and Gravity workshop, Vienna, Austria.
• Entanglement of Spacetime, MIT Center for Theoretical Physics seminar.
• Entanglement: from gauge fields to strings, It from Qubit collaboration workshop, Bariloche, Argentina.
• PIRSA:16050020, Entanglement of spacetime, 2016-05-05, Colloquium
• PIRSA:15110100, Limits on locality from gravitational dressing, 2015-11-26, Quantum Gravity
• PIRSA:15080078, Diffeomorphism-invariant observables and nonlocality, 2015-08-20, Quantum Information in Quantum Gravity II
• PIRSA:14050122, Entanglement and Edge Modes in Gauge Theory and Gravity, 2014-05-21, Quantum Gravity Day 2014
• PIRSA:12060067, Vacuum Entanglement and Gauge Symmetry, 2012-06-27, Relativistic Quantum Information - 2012
• PIRSA:07090012, Entanglement Entropy in Loop Quantum Gravity, 2007-09-08